Through a monographic analysis of an Israeli kibbutz, this project aims to develop a dialectical approach in social anthropology. Such an approach would transcend the current schism between normativist and interactionist (rational-choice) analysis. The central hypothesis of this approach is that the apparent breach, in every society, between norm and action is mediated or temporized by tacit knowledge, that is, knowledge that has not been explicity propounded but is nonetheless evident in social action. I shall argue that such knowledge becomes concretely determining as a function of situational relevance. As my empirical case, I shall study the articulation of ideology and action in a kibbutz. The data were collected by me during twenty months of field research. The study will consist of three principal parts: (1) an analysis of the major tenets of the kibbutz ideology; (2) an extended-case study of the tacit stigmatization of an individual and his family; and (3) an extended-case study of a move to change the commune's democratic procedure. The extended-case studies will be used to shown in detail how ideology and practice get interarticulated and to elucidate in general the kibbutz. Especial attention will be given to kibbutz family, decision-making, and generational conflict. In addition to the extended-case method, I shall employ the method of phenomenology. This method is geared to identify the tacit meanings in human situations, so as to grasp these situations by their seminal signfications and in terms of how they are constructed and affectively experienced (in contrast to simply imposed and cognized, respectively). Such a method is fundamentally humanistic and scientific.